St. Louis County

A 72-year-old man is in critical condition after he was found unresponsive in a swampy area in northern Minnesota. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office says authorities got a call to check on the man in rural Orr after he hadn’t been heard from for about two days.

Alcohol may have been a factor in an ATV crash that injured a husband and wife in St. Louis County Friday. The accident happened 15 miles west of Cook, Minn. on Highway 5, when driver Terry Treloar and his wife and passenger Joann were riding on a side-by-side ATV.

Authorities say a major sandbagging operation is under way on Lake Kabetogama (kab-uh-TOH’-gah-muh) in far northern Minnesota.

The director of homeland security and emergency management for the St. Louis County sheriff’s office, Steve Steblay (steb-LYE’), says the lake level rose sharply over the weekend. He says crews are sandbagging homes, resorts and roads to protect them. He says a large percentage of the resort and private docks and shoreline structures such as boathouses on Kabetogama are gone or have been destroyed.

Divers have recovered the body of a pilot whose small plane crashed into Lake Superior. St. Louis County Rescue Squad Capt. Tom Crossmon says commercial divers with expertise in deep diving recovered the body Monday evening. The divers were assisted by the Superior-Douglas County, Wisconsin dive team.

A 25-year-old man was killed Tuesday morning in a head-on collision in St. Louis County, according to officials. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to the crash around 7:21 a.m. Tuesday at the intersection of Midway Road and North Cloquet Road.

A man buried when a snow fort collapsed around him has been rescued in St. Louis County. Hermantown police say the man’s son called 911 about 5 p.m. Sunday after his father became buried in the heavy snow. Police officers were first to arrive and were able to find the man under the snow and bring him to safety.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of a man who claims he was sexually abused by a priest in the Diocese of Duluth in the 1970s is asking the diocese to release its list of 17 priests accused of molesting minors.

An 85-year-old deer hunter is safe after becoming lost in northeastern Minnesota. The St. Louis County sheriff’s office says the Scanlon man got lost while following a deer in the woods. The sheriff’s volunteer rescue squad was called after members of his hunting party were unable to find him.

The possibility of more precious metal mining proposals in northern Minnesota took another step forward on Friday after the state’s executive council approved 31 leases of state and private lands to three mining companies seeking exploration.

The lost photographer who went missing Saturday night north of Ely, Minn., was found at 3 a.m. on Sunday by authorities. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department said the country rescue squad located John Ratzloff, 66, in the early morning hours on Sunday after he was able to start a fire to keep warm.

Two people are being treated with non-life-threatening injuries after the motorcycle they were riding on collided with a minivan Saturday near Babbitt, according to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s office. At 1:15 p.m., 67-year-old Susan Fetterer of Plymouth attempted to turn on to northbound Highway 21 and collided with a motorcycle. Thirty-five-year-old Dewi Webb, the motorcycle driver, and 36-year-old passenger Tiffany Webb were ejected from the bike on impact.

St. Louis County saw the fourth-highest demand for marriage licenses by gay couples in the first month they were allowed to wed in Minnesota. The county had 69 same-sex couples apply for licenses in August.

St. Louis County authorities have identified the man who died in a cabin fire on Aug. 17 outside of Tower, Minn. The remains of Josh Michael Haavisto, 37, of Virginia, Minn., were found in a destroyed shack that had burned.

St. Louis County Board Chairman Chris Dahlberg, who bills himself as a pragmatic fiscal conservative, has become Minnesota’s latest Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Al Franken.

Sheriff’s officials have released the name of a 14-year-old boy who died in a swimming accident in Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. St. Louis County authorities say Briggs Anderson of Fergus Falls was with a church group touring Rainy Lake by houseboat when the accident happened Monday evening.

A Cloquet man pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder, witness tampering and aiding and abetting arson in connection to a cold case from 2000. According to the St. Louis County Attorney’s office, Joseph John Couture Jr. admitted to murdering Trina Louise Langenbrunner on Sept. 3, 2000. Langenbrunner, who was 33 at the time, was found stabbed and beaten to death near a gravel pit in St. Louis County. Her murder was a cold case until last year.

Authorities have identified the two who died in a Tuesday afternoon crash in St. Louis County. The State Patrol said at about 3:39 p.m. Tuesday on Highway 194 and Berquist Road, 29-year-old Lon-Lee Lindquist, of Cloquet, and 46-year-old Troy Berens, of Floodwood, died when their Chevrolet truck crashed into a westbound GMC truck that had drifted into their eastbound lane.

The 24-year-old motorcyclist that died Thursday afternoon in northeastern Minnesota has been identified as Benjamin Scott Jones, authorities say. According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Jones, a Rice Lake Township resident, was traveling north on Rice Lake Road on his motorcycle when he attempted to pass an SUV, also traveling northbound, as it made a left turn.

A 24-year-old motorcyclist died Thursday afternoon in northeastern Minnesota, authorities say. According to the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, a 24-year-old Rice Lake Township resident was traveling north on Rice Lake Road on his motorcycle when he attempted to pass an SUV, also traveling northbound, as it made a left turn.